


you're the hero of this story (you don't need to be saved)

by Lake (beyond_belief)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Card Games, Fluff, M/M, Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:47:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23754082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beyond_belief/pseuds/Lake
Summary: Finn adjusts to life on the Rebellion base. (Poe helps.)
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn
Comments: 8
Kudos: 101





	you're the hero of this story (you don't need to be saved)

**Author's Note:**

> So I actually started this after TFA came out and poked at it on and off for... well, forever, until I decided it didn't need to be something that was ten thousand words long and could just be Finn and Poe being soft. Clearly this has been jossed but whatever, it's fanfic.

"So do Stormtroopers ever..." Poe stops before he finishes the question, frowning down at his cards as though he's the one flummoxed by this game and not Finn, who has pleaded confusion three times in one hand already. "Let me start over. Do Stormtroopers get to be - not Stormtroopers?"

Finn looks at his betting pieces for a moment before he pushes a sun towards the middle of the table. "What do you mean? Card down."

Poe puts a yellow sun card down, and Finn puts down a blue moon, so Poe wins one of the sun pieces from the bet pile. They each draw new cards to replace. 

"Like, what we're doing now - enjoying some free time, playing some cards, having some spirits." Poe looks at Finn's glass, which Finn hasn't touched since his initial sip. He hadn't liked it very much. "Or I guess I'm having beer and you're not?"

Finn wrinkles his nose, thinking of the bitter taste. "It was - weird."

"It's fine, buddy. If you don't like it, you don't like it. More for me, right?" He smiles warmly at Finn, clearly trying to show he's not offended by Finn's desire not to finish the beer. Finn feels a wave of relief, and he nudges the small glass to Poe's side of the table. 

"To answer your question," Finn says as he adds a moon piece to the betting pool and Poe adds a star, "we normally got two hours between night meal and lights out - and lights out meant pitch black in the barracks, real complete darkness. You could read - there were technical manuals and history holos in the library - or play one of the war games."

Poe eyes his cards for a moment like he's trying to decide what to put down next. "War games?" 

"Yeah, military tactic games. I guess they were really training exercises. What's better again - the white star or the blue one?"

"Blue."

Finn moves a few cards around in his hand. He has one blue moon and three white stars, but only one orange sun and one yellow. Neither of them have put down a red sun yet but there are only two in the deck. Part of this game is keeping track of what's already been played. He says, "It wasn't free time like this is free time."

"Yeah, buddy, I understood that." Poe taps his foot lightly against Finn's under the table. "Card down."

*

Finn has his suspicions that Suns Moons Stars is a children's game, but Poe always seems perfectly happy to play it, and the deck seems so well-loved; the cards are smooth with rounded edges that speak to years of handling, and the colored varnish has rubbed off the betting pieces in various spots.

Poe doesn't only play it with Finn; he's got an entire betting pool going with Snap and Jess, the outcomes of games listed on a piece of paper stuck up on the makeshift wall of the hangar. "Does the winner get a lot of credits or something?" Finn asks, when Poe explains about the betting pool and says he'll add Finn in once he's gotten the rules of the game down.

"The winner gets a very large stash of fruit-bread packets from the ration bags," Jess calls from underneath her X-Wing.

Finn frowns. "I thought no one likes the fruit-bread stuff."

"Exactly!" Jess yells, and BB-8 trills in agreement.

Poe's laughing. He squeezes Finn's shoulder warmly. "We don't really have anything else to bet with, so now it's become a sort of joke. Could you pass me the spanner?"

Finn's learned all the tools now, and Poe and BB-8 are teaching him the guts of the ships. Finn thinks he's picking it all up fairly quickly, and Rey should be pleased when she comes back. He watches what Poe's doing now and understands that what's loose is part of the housing, not a thing that actually flies the X-Wing but a part that could cause severe damage were it to rip off while the ship is in the air.

"What are you doing later?" he asks Poe.

Poe grunts as he hefts the panel back into place on the side of the X-wing. "I'm up in the droid maintenance rotation since we're grounded right now, so nothing exciting."

"I can help," Finn says immediately, and Poe grins, wiping his hands on a rag. 

"You help, and you'll end up in the rotation, too."

Jess yells, "That's how it starts!" and Poe waves the rag in her direction, still smiling at Finn.

Droid maintenance can't be that hard. "That's fine."

*

Finn decides he'll need to rethink that statement after the third time the tiny canteen droid sprays him with lubricant fluid. "Don't you want your joints to move smoothly or not?" Finn asks it, holding up his hands. "If you don't, fine, but if this is a droid joke, it's not funny."

The little droid beeps in what sounds to him like acquiescence, and allows Finn to clean it up carefully and make the metal bits shine before spinning off in the direction of the mess. Finn scrubs the lubricant from his hands and arms, then tosses the rag into his bucket of supplies. "Oh, you've got a little -" Poe starts as he comes back into the small bay where they've been working. "Or I guess a lot." 

He takes the rag that's sticking out of his pocket and wipes the side of Finn's face, then his ear, and down his neck as Finn stands still and feels a little bit like the droid he just cleaned up, although Poe's touch is gentle. "Now you see why we put on these ugly jumpsuits," Poe says with a grin. "That model of droid, especially, is programmed to recognize only it's own work, and not routine maintenance."

"So it's made to work until it breaks down?"

The smile on Poe's face fades a little. "Yeah." He wipes his own hands, getting the oil off his knuckles, then says, "I think we're done, you hungry?"

Finn thinks about it for a second, checking in with his stomach. He's still not used to that question, after years of regimented meal times and little choice in foods. "Yeah. Yeah, I think so."

"Great."

They hang the overalls back on the hooks for the next unlucky victims of the canteen droid, and detour to Poe's quarters, where he says he's got some tabac of some sort for Snap. Finn likes Poe's quarters. They're hardly bigger than his own tiny corner - he's a little suspicious that as the newest person on base, he should have been assigned to share - but Poe's room feels warmer, somehow. More like a place a person lived, and not only slept. There's a brightly colored woven blanket on Poe's unmade bunk, wadded up in places like it had been tucked around Poe while he slept. It looks comfortable.

Poe's gaze follows his and he says, "I know, I'm a grown man, but I never liked to make my bed."

"Oh no," Finn replies, laughing a little. "Not that. It just looks like a nice place to sleep."

"That blanket came with me from Yavin 4. It reminds me of home." The words are soft. Finn feels the press of Poe's shoulder against his for a moment, before Poe steps away to dig through a cloth bag next to his small table.

"I wish I remembered my home," Finn says without thinking, and Poe looks up, the corners of his mouth turned down.

"You'll find it. I know it, Finn. There's a place for you in the galaxy, just you wait." He says it with such conviction that Finn can't help but believe him completely. 

Poe finds the tabac and they continue to the canteen, where the little droid Finn cleaned earlier runs lightly into his feet until BB-8 beeps something at it, and the little droid beeps back. Finn's got a week's worth of binary lessons and catches only the bit that lets him know they're talking about him before Poe's hand is on his shoulder, squeezing. "The kitchen droid appreciates that you shined it up," he says. 

"You're welcome," Finn says to it, and it zooms away.

The canteen, like most of the base with the exception of the hangars, is a small area. There are a few long tables with benches. Finn sees the General at one of them before Poe says, "Should we see what's on the menu?".

There are usually some re-hydrated rations, a flavored protein gel - sometimes several flavors, Finn likes the purple one even if he can't say what it tastes _like_ \- and fruits gathered from the forested areas outside the base. "I'm not sure what they're called either," Poe said when Finn first asked what the fruits were, "but we can eat them and they're pretty tasty, right?"

The fruits are red and juicy, and mostly sweet. But every so often one will be sour, and whoever's gotten it will make a terrible face. Finn doesn't mind the sour ones; he puts them in with the purple protein gel and likes how they mix. 

"Your favorite _and_ mine tonight," he says to Poe as they wait behind Starck. "Purple protein gel and that bread with dried vegetables thing."

"Still better than what we usually got in the Academy," Poe says. His face scrunches up in a way Finn finds bizarre, because Poe's got such a great face. Poe should never look disgusted, Finn decides, especially not about food. "Protein cereal, ugh."

"That's First Order-level bad," Finn agrees. 

They get their small plates and slip into an open space left at one of the tables, Finn at the end, tucked close against Poe so he doesn't fall off the bench. "Wex!" Poe calls.

Snap looks up from his vegetable bread just in time for Poe to toss the small package of tabac. "Oh, I'm going to enjoy this," he says, and there's a general clamoring along the table of people asking if he's going to share. Snap tucks the pouch into a pocket on his jumpsuit. "Nope."

There's a wave of disappointed noises. Finn chuckles down at his food, readjusting his balance on the bench. "You gonna fall off there?" Poe asks. He slings an arm around Finn's waist, holding on to him. 

"Thanks," Finn sighs, and Poe just squeezes.

*

Finn wakes up shivering, his hands clutching so tightly at the blanket that it's almost painful. He scrunches down under it for a while, willing his heart to stop beating so fast, reminding himself he's safe here in this little room on the base.

He's also not alone. 

He looks over the edge of the bed. Poe is still on the floor, sprawled out asleep on a scavenged bedroll. Finn can see his back rise and fall gently with each breath. He feels grateful, suddenly, to have a friend like Poe, who will stretch out on the small bit of floor and swap stories with Finn until they both fall asleep, and not complain of any aches or pains in the morning. 

He rolls onto his back and looks up at the stone ceiling for a while, mapping all the bumps and valleys again even though he's stared at it nearly every night since getting out of Medical. It's soothing at this point, a way to lull himself back to sleep. 

"Finn?" Poe whispers. "You awake?"

"Yeah."

"Bad dream?"

Finn takes a deep breath, lets it out slowly. "Yeah."

"I'm sorry."

Finn turns back onto his side to look down at Poe again. "It was only a dream," he says, like he tells himself every time it happens. 

Poe's eyes are open, only the top half of his face visible above the blanket he's got tucked around himself. He maneuvers a hand out from underneath it and grasps Finn's where Finn's let it hang down over the edge of the bed. Poe squeezes his fingers. "Thanks," Finn sighs. 

Poe smiles; Finn can tell because the corners of his eyes crinkle up. He thinks it's nice, just having Poe look at him and see a _person_. "I got my set with me, you want to play?"

"Sure. Do you want to come up here?" 

Poe brings his blanket up onto the bed with him; it's not really large enough for two humanoid males, but Finn doesn't mind being squished up against Poe, both of them holding their cards up close to their chests in the dim light he'd switched on. "Mm, this doesn't count for any bets or anything," Poe murmurs sleepily as he arranges the betting pieces in a dip in the blanket between them. 

"I won't tell anyone we played," Finn promises.

Poe rests his head on Finn's shoulder. It's nice. "We could play the guessing variation." It's less keeping track of what cards are worth more. "You start."

Finn looks at his cards. "Um, blue stars?"

"Draw." 

Finn pulls a yellow sun and tucks it into place in his hand. Poe's hair smells a little like tabac. "Did you smoke with Snap earlier?" he asks.

"I did. You got… orange sun?"

Finn hands it over, and Poe collects his sun piece from the little pile of betting pieces. It's a glass marble - according to Poe, he'd lost the painted wooden one years ago. "Rolled off into the great unknown," he sighed, when Finn asked why there was a single marble in the set. "It's probably still on that starship."

It's the most Poe ever said about flying for the Republic, besides the reluctant laugh he always lets out when Jess teases him about there being wanted posters still flashing his face in some parts of the system. "The most handsome wanted poster, for sure," she said with a grin, bumping Poe's shoulder. 

"I'm sure Finn's taken over that honor," Poe replied. 

"You think the First Order put up fugitive notices for me?" Finn asked, nearly dropping his wrench.

Poe chuckled at that. "Buddy, we're all defectors."

"Finn?" Poe whispers now, his hair brushing Finn's ear. "You doze off on me?"

"No, I'm awake. White star?"

"Ugh," Poe groans, and passes over two cards, which means Finn has all of the white star cards now, and can claim half of the star pieces.

Finn yawns, leaning his head against Poe's. He knows Poe can probably see his cards, but it really doesn't matter very much.

*

"Walk with me," the General says, and Finn hurries to fall into step next to her. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine, ma'm. Thank you."

"Settling in all right?"

"I know I'm another mouth to feed," Finn hurries to say, feeling his cheeks heat up. "But I help out with whatever I can, and I think I'm getting to be a decent mechanic. There's just a lot to learn, and I -"

"And you've only been up and about a few weeks." She smiles. "The intel you provided about the First Order has proved to be very helpful, and I know the pilots are all enjoying having someone new to show off for."

Finn nearly tries to deny it, but then remembers the low-altitude tour of the treetops he was taken on last week, the speedy little plane dipping and weaving along the tallest trunks. 

"And don't give me bull about being another mouth to feed, this Resistance needs all the good people it can get." 

"Yes, ma'am," Finn agrees. 

The General looks over at him, a contemplative expression on her face. They walk for a while without speaking; Finn doesn't know what he'd say, anyway. He gets the distinct impression she's thinking very seriously about something. He hopes it's not about how the Resistance should drop him off at the next inhabited planet and go on without him. 

"Finn," she says, after another few minutes have passed. 

"Yes, General?"

"Have you ever been in love?"

"I - no," Finn admits, a little startled by what she's asked. 

"Not much room for it in the First Order." Her words aren't quite shaped as a question, but Finn nods in agreement anyway. She stops to talk to D'Arcy, so Finn waits, feeling awkward hanging back. Then the General continues on, waving him along. "We're not a large force, but we're growing stronger every day. Captain Dameron is at the forefront of that. In fact, it's my hope that - well, he might one day lead the Resistance."

"Poe?" Finn says before he can stop himself.

A genuine smile crosses her face. "Yes, Poe. I doubt he'd admit it, but I've been at least trying to prepare him." 

Being in charge of a group with as many moving parts as the Resistance seems like a lot of responsibility to Finn. Without thinking about what he's saying, he asks, "Can he do that and still fly?"

"Knowing Poe, he'd figure out a way." They've reached the command room, where the General keys in the door code. Finn hangs back. "I'm glad you're here, Finn," she says.

*

Finn's asleep alone in his quarters when there's a rustle in the base, just enough noise to wake him. He watches the rock above him in the dark for a few seconds, trying to place the sounds. Footsteps, too many for the lone nighttime security patrol that goes past Finn's quarters only once before sunrise each day.

There's a knock against the molded piece that functions as a door. "Come in?" 

It's Poe, flight suit halfway on, the arms tied around his waist. "Duty calls," he says, bracing his hands on either side of Finn's doorway and leaning in slightly. "Short run, be back before you know it."

Finn sits up and swings his legs out of the bed, wincing as the scar tissue pulls a little. "Where are you -"

"I can't say." 

"Oh."

"You didn't have to get up," Poe says, as Finn approaches.

"Yeah, I did." 

Poe smiles at that and folds him into a tight hug. "Don't forget about me," he says, like he says every time he goes off on a mission that Finn can't go along for.

"I could never."

Poe squeezes him a little tighter for a second, then lets go. "I'll see you in a few days, Finn."

"A few days," Finn repeats. 

When Poe's gone, Finn lays back down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling above him, his eyes mapping the bits of lighter stone flecked through the darker without really seeing it. _Have you ever been in love?_

_No._

He's not sure he even knows what feeling he'd classify as love. Was it the thing that had clenched his heart so hard when Slip died? Was it that spike in his chest when Rey took his hand? Was it the soft tug he felt, urging him to lean against Poe as they curled on his bunk to play Suns Moons Stars?

Maybe it's all of those, and more.

*

It's always strange with Poe gone. Finn does his normal rotation of droid maintenance, base maintenance, and a few rounds in the canteen. On the third day, he goes out with Lieutenant Connix to see what they can find for the canteen in the forest to the west. Finn hasn't actually been out of the base that much, but Connix has a little hand-held scanner, and strides confidently in what must be the right direction. Finn hurries to catch up.

"It's kind of weird with them all gone," she says after they've been walking for a while. "Almost too quiet."

"Yeah."

Connix ducks under a low-hanging branch. "You put in for that pilot's training yet?"

"I - no, not yet." 

"It's not like we've got all that many ships with co-pilot spots, but you never know, we might liberate some from the First Order one of these days. And Poe says you were a pretty good shot."

"It was mostly luck," Finn insists. 

"Luck," she huffs. 

Finn reaches up and trails his fingers along the underside of the leaves above their heads. Sunlight flickers down in between. "Can I ask you something?"

"Like what?" Connix asks, looking at him a little sideways.

"You ever have any weird conversations with the General?"

Her eyebrows draw together at something on the scanner, and then she reaches down to pick several small fruits from a bushy plant. "Like what?"

"The other day she asked me if I'd ever been in love." Finn holds out his hands for the fruit so that she can gather more. 

Connix laughs openly. "She does that."

"So she's asked you that."

Connix grins and piles more fruit in his outstretched hands. "No."

*

News that the squadron is back sweeps through the base ripple-quick, before the X-wings have even touched down. Finn struggles down from the ladder he's up on, scrubbing, and joins the stream of people heading in the direction of the area they're calling a hangar.

He sees Snap first, then Jess. Then he hears them: arguing about who is winning the Suns Moons Stars pool. That makes Finn laugh, as he slips past them in search of Poe. 

Poe's standing on the ladder next to his ship, arguing with BB-8. "I hear what you're saying, but you need to just fix it," he says, and BB-8 beeps a string of protests. 

"We don't have time for you to tinker, what if we need to evacuate?" Poe continues. Then he sees Finn. "Finn!"

"Glad you're back," Finn replies. "What's BB-8 trying to do?"

"Something with the hyperdrive." Poe climbs down. Looks at Finn for a long moment, long enough for Finn to feel his cheeks heat, his mind turning to all those worries about what love could feel like. "You okay?" Poe asks.

"I'm fine, fine." 

"Good." Poe pulls him in for a hug. His arms are tight around Finn's waist, then touch gentle to his back. "You feel okay?"

"I'm still all healed, I promise," Finn says. "Haven't gotten any worse in the couple days you were gone."

"Good, good. You hungry?"

"Are _you_ hungry?" Finn asks, confused, as BB-8 beeps something about hyperdrive components, and then something about how they're walking away from him. 

"You can get yourself down," Poe calls back at the droid. "Come on, Finn."

"Where are we going?" 

Poe weaves them around all the other people still in the hangar, and out of it, and down the strangely winding stone corridor towards crew quarters. "What is it?" Finn asks, as Poe squeezes his hand. 

Poe's room looks the same as ever, right down to the bright blanket wadded on the bunk. "It was strange here without you, while you were gone," Finn says, looking down at their hands still clasped. Then he looks back up at Poe, whose gaze has an intensity Finn hasn't seen before. 

"I tried to wait, but - I'm not actually very good at waiting," Poe says all in a rush, before he kisses Finn softly. His mouth is warm, his hands settling gently on Finn's hips are warm. "I've wanted to kiss you since - hell, since Jakku, probably."

Jakku wasn't all that long ago. Jakku feels like forever. Finn doesn't know what to say, so he leans his forehead against Poe's. "Is it - can I tell you I love you?"

Poe's eyes widen slightly, and his grip tightens. "You can tell me that again, if you want. You can tell me that every day."

Finn feels almost dizzy with relief, and presses his mouth to Poe's once more.


End file.
